Across the Universe
by The Human Kalei-doscope
Summary: With a new body and a new regeneration cycle, the Doctor resumes a life of travel. Along the way, he gains a new companion in Cyphrin Fitzroy. Together, the face old and new foes alike. Come join them, wont you? First in a fan season
1. The Void Beyond the Mind

Doctor Who © the BBC. I own nothing. Cept Cyphrin. Savy?

--

**Across the Universe**

_"Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup,  
They slither while they pass, they slip away across the universe  
Pools of sorrow, waves of joy are drifting through my opened mind,  
Possessing and caressing me.  
_

_Jai guru de va om  
_

_Nothings gonna change my world,  
Nothings gonna change my world.  
Nothings gonna change my world  
Nothings gonna change my world."_

_Fiona Apple,__** 'Across the Universe'.**_

**_--_**

Earth.

25th Century- 2455

New London, England.

It was harder to see the stars at night these days. After the third World War, most of the Earths green house had been destroyed. The UN and most of the Solar System governments had worked together to restore it, but the process was slow and might take another few decades to complete. That is if humanity stuck to its promise of keeping to alternative means of power.

But that was a promise Cyphrin Fitzroy didn't see staying firm. She laid out atop her apartment building, staring up at the dingy, smoggy night sky. Cyphrin wondered if she would ever see the stars with her own eyes. In her 17 years of life, she had never actually seen the stars. Not even on trips to the country in her childhood. Sighing, Cyphrin hoisted herself up and brushed the filth off her punkish attire.

Red plaid pants, a shirt with the sleeves buckled on and Doc Martins were very out of fashion in the 25th century; but Cyphrin liked old things. Brushing a had through her short, blue dyed hair, she descended the stairs into the building. Stopping at her flat, she freshened up before leaving. She had friends to meet at the coffee house.

The streets of New London were safe enough, but like all major cities they had their bad neighborhoods. It was through such a neighborhood that Cyphrin had to trek through to get to her destination. Looking behind herself, she noticed two rather mean looking men had begun to follow her. She picked up her pace, hoping that they just happened to be going in the same direction as she.

No such luck. The men picked up their pace as well, forcing Cyphrin into a jog to lose them. She made a hard right into an alley, hoping that they wouldn't follow. Also no such luck. As if they knew she'd duck into that particular alley, a friend of her pursuers was there to grab and throw her against the wall.

"Now whats a pretty little thing like you doing out and about in a place like this?" he said, the irony not lost on his bad Cockney accent.

"I dunno. Just felt like going to a dingy alley to get molested by some bad breathed, brutish thugs. Y'know?" Cyphrin replied, refusing to let any sort of fear show.

The other two thugs joined them. They leered at the semi-plump form of Cyphrin, thoughts of the most un-Christian nature running through their minds. Miss Fitzroy clenched her muscles in preparations for the fight of her life. But just as she expected to deliver or take the first blow, someone else joined the fray.

"Excuse me?" said a voice from the opening of the alley. "But I don't think that young lady wants your particular brand of company."

All eyes turned to the stranger. He wasn't a tall man. He couldn't be any more taller than Cyphrin. And he was well dressed. To well dressed for the times as they were. He wore a blue suit with a starched Edwardian style collar with a burgundy cravat. He carried a cane with him, and he was leaning on it in a very confidant manner. His hair was black with visible white hairs. His eyes were blue and his face was rounded and cherubic like. His expression was a mix of authority and curiosity.

"Such an odd grouping of people, isn't it? This wouldn't happen to be 1978, would it?" the man asked, his expression becoming full on curious.

"Who the fuck are you, old man?!" demanded one of the thugs. The stranger cocked his head and smiled.

"Heh. No ones asked me that in a while. Well, just so you know; I am known as the Doctor." he smiled brightly, seeming to forget that he had just interrupted and attempted rape.

"Well, whoever you are, geezer, you're ass is whooped." said another of the group. He stepped forward to the smaller man, almost towering over him.

"Very well, young man. Though I must warn you, I'm quiet spry for my age." he said, still smiling. Though Cyphrin noted that this smile carried an edge of danger to it.

From her perspective, she couldn't see the stranger as the brute stepped in front if him. She could see him take a swing with his fist, but then she heard him cry out in pain as he was apparently struck by the smaller man. The brute fell to the ground, revealing the stranger to be merely holding the index and middle finger of his right hand in front of him. About right were the other mans heart would be. The other men, including Cyphrin; couldn't absorb what the so called 'Doctor' had done.

"Now then," exclaimed the Doctor, that big smile on his face once more. "Do you gentlemen care to leave this girl alone, or do we have to get into a brawl. I must tell you, I dislike brawls. To messy, I say. I prefer to keep things clean..."

Before he could finish his ramble, the other two men rushed at him. Taking up his cane, the Doctor swung once at the side of one man, knocking him into the wall and rendering him unconscious. The other man tried to grab the Doctor, but the smaller man ducked and rolled. He struck him in the back of his knees with a chopping motion of his hand and brought him to the ground in a hard thud.

The Doctor got up off the dirty ground and brushed himself clean. He turned to the stunned Cyphrin, who was against the wall with eyes wide and jaw slack.

"Hello." said the Doctor, still grinning. "I am a Doctor. What's your name?"


	2. The Empty Space that Circles Time

**Across the Universe**

_"Images of broken light which dance before me like a million eyes,  
That call me on and on across the universe,  
Thoughts meander like a restless wind inside a letter box they  
Tumble blindly as they make their way  
Across the universe  
_

_Jai guru de va om  
_

_Nothings gonna change my world,  
Nothings gonna change my world.  
Nothings gonna change my world.  
Nothings gonna change my world."  
_

_Fiona Apple,__** 'Across the Universe'.**_

Cyphrin couldnt tell if she should feel greatful or mortified. After this so called 'Doctor' had saved her life, he insisted on escourting her to the cafe. That was all well and dandy at the time, but now her friends were throwing acusations left and right at her. And the Doctor seemed totally oblivious to what was being implied. As the group sat in the mostly empty cafe, Cyphrins two friends refused to relent on the questions.

"C'mon, he probably wants to take you back to his place after this, mate." Becky, a tall blonde with to many facial piercings giggled. Cyphrin rolled her eyes and drank deep of her super-sweetend coffee.

"So, did you thank him yet, love?" said Jericho, a black haired boy who need tips on applying masscare.

"For your information, no! Sure, he saved me life. But that dosent I'm going to bloody go home with him. I mean, look at him!" she jerked her thumb in the Doctors direction. He had been siting at a near by table, legs propped up on the extra chair, staring at the menu for a who knows how long.

Despite how Cyphrin and her friends dressed, they stiffled giggles at the Doctors semi-Edwardian garb. Cyphrin had noticed his signet ring on his left pinky and an odd, gold question mark pin in his lapel when he had insited she take his arm as they walked.

"Oi!" shouted Becky to the Doctor. "What's your name, mate?"

"The Doctor."

"Yes, but Doctor who?" he laughed out loud.

"Its just 'the Doctor', my dear. Has been for a long time now." he said before going back to reading the menu again.

Cyphrin rolled her eyes and sulked in her seat. As Jericho and Becky kept talking about some things that didnt interest Cyphrin at the moment, the Doctors head jerked up from the reading position. He got up from his table and made a dash over to the flat screen telly on the far wall. On screen was some old music video by one of the groups favorite artists, His Infernal Majesty; or just HIM.

"Ha ha! I love this song! Well, I've never heard it untill tonight, but I love it." Laughing out loud once more, the Doctor began swaying and tapping his toes to the beat. He even began singing some of the lyrics, and he was quite good at it actually. Jericho and Becky laughed and applauded the Doctor, but Cyphrin was even more embarrased by his actions.

Later, the group finally decided to call it a night. Waving good bye to her friends, Cyphrin headed in the oppisite direction to home. She stopped when she noticed the Doctor was following her.

"You dont need to escort me home, you know?" The Doctor came up next to her.

"I know. I just happen to be going the same way as you." He picked up his walking stick and hummed some tune as he walked with her.

Because of, or inspite of, this mans oddness, Cyphrin was begining to feel some what comfortable with him. She didnt know why, though. He had acted like a complete clown in the cafe. She didnt have anymore time to think on it, however.

"Well, looky here, chums." The Doctor and Cyphrin were caught by surprise. Out of the shadows, the very same gang that the Doctor had thwarted early stepped up to them.

"Its time we got soem payback for what you did to us, old man." said one of them. The Doctor stepped forward, confidance positivly oozing from his form.

"Do we have to do this again so soon? I just had a rather nice time with my new friend, and I'd rather not spoil my good mood by having to deal with your lot again. So please, just leave now. I dont want to have to teach you all another leason."

The entire group of thugs then pulled out pistols from their pockets. The Doctors confidance visibly lessened in the face of this new development.

Stepping back, he came to Cyphrins' side once more, taking her hand in his. She was about to protest when the Doctor spoke up.

"When I say run, run..." Three seconds later. "RUN!!"

Hand in hand, the Doctor and Cyphrin ran as fast as their legs could carry them. Dodging the hale of bullets that followed them, they darted behind bushes and anything else that may discourage persuit. Darting into an alley way, the Doctor pulled Cyphrin in the direction of an odd blue box sitting at the end of it.

"We'll be safe in here, m'dear." he said, stopping to pull on even more odd shaped key from his waistcoat pocket.

"I fail to see how we'll be safe in some old Police Box."

"Oh, dont worry. You will see soon enough." he opened the door and allowed her to step inside first.

Inside, Cyphrin Fitzroy thought she had stepped into one of the old sci-fi stories of her childhood. She stood inside a large, roundulare like room, far to big to be inside a Police Box. The Doctor walked past her, throwing his blue jacket on a coat rack situated in a corner of the room. He walked up to what looked like a circle shaped control panel in the middle of the room, setting his walking stick against the side if it.

It had a glass pillar extending up and into the ceiling. Actually, it would be better to say that the control console was suspended from the ceiling by this pillar. The room itself was covered on all walls by little hexagonal shapes, seeming to be the lights of the room. She slowed walked towards the Doctor, who was busy looking over something on a moniter screen attatched to the rim of the pillar.

"Hmmm, well I suppose I could try Zenitus V again. Hopefully they'll forgive that little incident..." he said to himself, scratching his head. He then turned to Cyphrin, almost forgetting he had brought her inside.

"Oh! Oh, I'm so sorry. I do tend to trail off sometimes. Miss Cyphrin Fitzroy, welcome to the TARDIS." He gestured dramaticly to the whole of the room. "Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. K-9?!" he shouted over his shoulder. Into the room rolled a small, robotic dog.

"Yes, Master?" said the tin dog.

"I'd like you to meet our guest. Cyphrin, this is my old friend, K-9 Mark IV." She looked down on the little robot in disbelief.

"This... this is all real..." the Doctor smiled at her.

"Yes, yes it is. You're impressed, arent you?" he grinned like a little boy, taking delight in this whole situation.

"Oh my god..." Cyphrin almost collapsed to the floor had not the Doctor caught her.

"Easy does it, love. Easy." he sat her down in a near by seat. "Need something to drink? Tea, soda, the like?" she nodded her head at 'tea'. He motioned to K-9. A laser shot from the robots muzzle, producing a tea table with all the fixings seemingly out of thin air.

"Ah, the wonders of the transmat beam." the Doctor boasted before fixing himself and his guest a cup. Cyphrin took it, sipping to test it before deciding it was fit for consumption.

"Now, I know you've got a thousand questions to ask, so best get them out now." he took a drink of his tea.

"I dont even know where to start..."

"Well... just ask the first question that pops into your mind." And indeed she did.

"Who are you? Really?" The Doctor sat his tea cup on the table.

"Well... that is a very, very, very long story, m'dear." but on he went with it.

He told Cyphrin of his race, the Time Lords. The most ancient race in the universe. Or had been. He told her of the Last Great Time War, of how he had to sacrifice both sides to end it all. He spoke of all his previous companions. Susan, Jamie, Romana, Ace, Rose; just a few of the dozens he had taken with him to the edges of time and back.

Cyphrin listened to his every word. She didnt want to beleive any of it, and yet she did. She beleived this strange mans wild tales of alien worlds and differnt times. He would use dramatic gesuters and differant voices like a story teller. And she loved every moment of it. By the time he was done, Cyphrin felt sad that soon she may have to leave him. But there was a gleam in the Doctors eyes, a sly twinkle that told her he had something else in mind.

"Well, my dear. Now that I've regailed you with my little tale, what do you have to say?"

"So..." she sat up off the seat and paced around the console. "If, hypotheticly, I were to come with you; we could be gone for months, even years? But we could return to moment just after we left, right?" The Doctor thought about it, looking up to the ceiling and twisting his face into odd, thoughtfull configurations.

"Yes. We could." Cyphrins eyes grew wide with happiness.

"Well, could we start with going to my flat?" she asked. Smiling once more, the Doctor hopped up and began flipping switches and pulling levers on the console. A rotor inside the glass pillar began to move up and down, and the entire room lurched. Cyphrin was jolted against the console, holding on for dear life as the Doctor laughed like a kid in a candy store.

"Allons-y!!" his laughter echoed through the room. Then, as suddenly as it had started, the room stopped shaking. Pulling and pushing another series of levers and buttons (and even hitting at the console with a hammer on a string), the Doctor annonced their arrival.

"So, did we just go flying through the air in a blue box." the Doctor rolled his eyes and chuckled.

"Silly girl, of course not. A blue box flying around the skies of 25th century London?! We'd have been shot down." Cyphrin shruged.

"So, outside it is..."

"The roof of your appartment building. Well, go on. Go grab your little knick-knacks and come back. I might just forget why I've come here and leave you behind." she bolted out the doors and down into her appartment. The Doctor followed her out, only going as far as the TARDIS doors. K-9 was behind, his metal tail wagging a little.

"Query, Master?"

"Yes, K-9?"

"My data banks are unable to recall simular circumstances of aquiring a new companion. Explain, please?"

"You mean why did I tell her everything?"

"Affirmative." The Doctor took a breath and let it go.

"You see, my robotic friend; I'm lonely. Coming the closest to true death than I ever have before made me re-think a few things. Like how I've kept things from previous companions. That's cost me far to much in the past. Well, no more. I've been given a new start, a whole new set of lives. And I intend to keep the friends I make." K-9 gave an affirmative to his master's answer.

Cyphrin came trudging back up the stairs, her bags packed haph-hazardly. The Doctor was kind enough to help her bring it inside the TARDIS. Once inside, the Doctor took to the controls again.

"Where to know? Oh, how about the ice planet Halsbet?! The sky there looks like its made of glass, can you imagine?!"

"Actually, I have something in mind, if its alright?"

"And what might that be, m'dear?"

They were more beautiful than Cyphrin had ever imagined.

Standing at the TARDIS doors, she gazed out into the vast and twinkling blackness of space. They looked like millions of little diamonds, glittering and glowing on a velvet canvas. The stars... they were real. So very real.

"Marvelous, arent they?" the Doctor leaned against the door frame, hands in his pockets. Cyphrin could only nod.

"All my life, all I could see of the stars was on the telly. I never could see them from the streets, not even from the country. I had almost stopped beleive that they were real..." she rubbed her hand against her cheek, trying to get the tears of joy off before her make up ran.

"Oh, they are real. I've been to a few of them, actually." he pointed out with his cane. "Over there is the the planet Telos. Got into quite a bit of trouble there. More than once, actually." he laughed a little. He did have a nice laugh, Cyphrin thought. "And over there," he pointed to his far right. "Was my world, Gallifrey."

He paused, old memories caming back to him. He smiled, regardless of the memory. His new companion looked at him, the thought finally; truly sinking in that this man was an alien. From a long dead world. She placed a hand on his arm, hoping that it was alright to let him know that she felt for him.

"Oh, thank you, Cyphrin. But I am resloved to look forward. No more living in the past like I had so few lifetimes ago." he left her side, returning to the console.

"We need some music. An occasion like this calls for it. But then again, any occasion does, really..." he muttered on as he picked up a small, square shaped device of the console. He pressed a few buttons, and the little hexagons began blinking to the light strums of a guitar. "Shall we dance?"

She needed no insentive. Taking hands, the Doctor and his new companion danced around the room, sharing a joy that neither really knew how to explain.

"Welcome abord, Ms. Fitzroy."

"Glad to be abord, Doctor."

_To new beginings..._

_"Sounds of laughter shades of earth are ringing  
Through my open ears inciting and inviting me  
Limitless undying love which shines around me like a  
Million suns, it calls me on and on  
Across the universe  
_

_Jai guru de va om  
_

_Nothings gonna change my world,  
Nothings gonna change my world.  
Nothings gonna change my world.  
Nothings gonna change my world.  
_

_Jai guru de va, jai guru de va  
_

_Jai guru de va, jai guru de va  
_

_Jai guru de va._

Jai guru de va, jai guru de va."


End file.
